Joel Parker

Joel Parker (24 November 1816-2 January 1888) was Governor of New Jersey from 20 January 1863 to 16 January 1866 (succeeding Charles Smith Olden and preceding Marcus Lawrence Ward) and from 16 January 1872 to 19 January 1875 (succeeding Theodore Fitz Randolph and preceding Joseph D. Bedle).

Biography
Joel Parker was born in Freehold Township, New Jersey in 1816, and he became a lawyer in 1842. He served in the General Assembly from 1847 to 1851, as Prosecutor of Pleas of Monmouth County, as a Democratic presidential elector in 1860 (casting his vote for Stephen A. Douglas), and as Governor from 1863 to 1866 and from 1872 to 1875. During his first term as Governor, Parker was affiliated with the War Democrats, supporting the military defeat of the Confederacy during the American Civil War while criticizing President Abraham Lincoln for suspending habeas corpus. After the war, he strongly supported amnesty for former Confederates, and, in 1868, 1876, and 1884, he was an unsuccessful Democratic nominee for President of the United States. He again served as Governor from 1872 to 1875, and he served as Attorney General of New Jersey in 1875 and as a justice of the State Supreme Court from 1880 until his death in 1888.